Tickets & Admission

For details on who organised these events and the speakers who took the stage, visit the Team and Presenters pages, or return to the Home page for an overview.

TEDxYorkUSalon is an independently organized salon that brings TED-style talks to York University in Toronto, held in the intimate setting of Glendon Theatre. The format follows the familiar rhythm of a short film screening: a curated programme of ideas delivered on stage, with the audience seated in a darkened room and the speakers given a strict but generous window to share their work. The atmosphere is closer to a community gathering than a conference, and the emphasis falls squarely on ideas worth sharing.

The 2017 salon, themed AutismInnovations, took place on April 22 and focused on the autism spectrum, on transition from youth to adulthood, and on the concerns of autistic people themselves alongside the researchers and care providers who work with them. The programme invited a portion of the stage over to researchers presenting lightning talks after the main salon, allowing shorter, faster bursts of insight to round out an afternoon of presentations.

Admission was handled through Eventbrite for both salons, making tickets the practical gateway to an evening of presentations. Because the gatherings are deliberately small and centred on a single venue, attendance tends to feel personal rather than mass-produced. Attendees arrive, listen to a sequence of talks, take part in interactive breaks between sessions, and leave with a playlist of videos and a sharpened sense of what is happening in the field of autism care and treatment.

Bringing the salon together involved a chair, a host, presenters, and a group of partners and stakeholders drawn from universities, care providers, and community organizations across the greater Toronto area. That collaboration is what allows a student-led event to speak to a Canadian audience with credibility: researchers share findings, practitioners describe treatment and support in the field, and community voices anchor the conversation in lived experience rather than abstract policy.

Watching the talks long after the lights come up is part of the design. Videos from the salon are published so that the ideas travel well beyond the theatre walls, offering a way for students, families, educators, and professionals to revisit the ideas and pass them on. In that sense the salon works less like an event that ends and more like a forum that keeps talking, with each edition adding another layer to an ongoing conversation about autism, innovations, and care.